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Thursday, October 17, 2013

Now about that mtng to discuss the Congress Heights metro redevelopment

I am very excited about plans to finally redevelop the Congress Heights metro so I will definetly be attending the community meeting on October 22 hosted by the Congress Heights Community Association. I hope and pray this meeting is much better received and managed than the first. I hope the obstructionists, complainers, fear mongers, whiners, and the all other loud mouths stay at home. That's ride I said it, "stay home."

Those distractors are not the real Congress Heights and do nothing but create noise when everyone else is trying to work collaboratively for a better neighborhood. It is okay for people to voice their concerns (assuming they are legitimate and not just fuel for posturing) in a calm and rationale manner. It is another thing entirely to come to a meeting and make accusations just because you think someone hasn't kissed your ring enough. These meetings are to inform the community of progress made so far, encourage input, and most importantly, build a bridge between the development community and the neighborhood. That can be a good relationship, that should be a good relationship. I think part of the reason that redevelopment has been so slow here is because it can be very challenging to create a productive dialogue. Meetings have the potential to turn into verbal beat downs and complaining sessions for everything that has ever gone wrong in Ward 8. If we want better we have to do better.

Draft rendering of development of the Congress Heights Metro Station.View of 13th and Alabama Avenue SE(photo courtesy of CityPartners DC)

I was very disappointed in the behavior of some attendees at the last meeting, so much so I wrote a post explaining why I was starting to hate "community meetings." I am hoping that if those same people attend this meeting they act like they have some manners so we can work together on having a better Congress Heights; a Congress Heights with amneties, quality services, and better housing options.